How One Episode of The Sopranos Changed Television Forever

The Sopranos has no shortage of great episodes. Episodes like Whitecaps, Made in America, and who could forget Pine Barrens.

But there is one episode that stands out above the rest. One episode that changed the course of television history, and set us up for the golden age of television we live in today. That episode is College.

On first glance, the fifth episode of the first season might not stand out as anything special, especially if you grew up with shows like Dexter, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, and Breaking Bad. But without this episode of the Sopranos, characters like Walter White or Dexter Morgan might never have been allowed to exist. So let's take a look at the episode that ushered in the era of the antihero. This is College.

The episode open with Tony taking Meadow on a trip to visit three colleges in Maine she is thinking of attending. On the car ride, she abruptly asks if he is in the mafia. Though taken aback, he admits that some of his money comes from illegal activities. Meadow appreciates his honesty.

Later at a gas station, Tony thinks he sees Febby Petrulio, a made guy from New Jersey who became a federal informant. Though Tony tries to follow him, he can't with Meadow in the car and he ends up losing him. He manages to get his license plate though and has Christopher run the plate.

Meanwhile Carmela is at home recovering from the flu. While AJ is out at a friends house, she is visited by Father Phil. While they are having dinner and wine together, Melfi calls the house to cancel her appointment with Tony. Carmela assumes that Tony is having an affair with her since he lied about his therapist being a woman.

Back in Maine, Tony and Meadow are having dinner. During the mean she admits to Tony that she was doing drugs before. When he asks why she would tell him this, she says it was because he was honest with her about the mafia.

However when gets Febby's address from Chris, he leaves Meadow with some college girls at the restaurant to he can track Febby down. He finds Febby at his house, but can't do anything since his family is with him. However Febby notices that something is off, and begins his own investigation into who is looking for him. He eventually discovers the motel where Tony and Meadow are staying at, and waits for them in ambush.

Meanwhile Carmela and Father Phil continue to drink and get close. Being upset about her life with Tony, she and Father Phil do confession, and he overs her communion. As things get intimate, she gets a call from AJ that he is staying the night at a friends and they will be alone together all night. Drunk off the communion wine, they are about to kiss when Father Phil gets sick and rushes to the bathroom to puke.

Tony brings a drunk Meadow back to the hotel. Febby sees them, but is unable to take the shot because of a couple nearby. The next morning, Tony drops Meadow off at the next college and goes off on his own. Febby tries to hire some junkies Tony for him, but they refuse and leave. Febby hears a noise outside, and goes to investigate.

When he does, Tony ambushes him and wraps a cord around his neck. Though Febby begs for mercy and says that he could have killed Tony the previous night, Tony strangles him to death. When he is done, he sees a a flock of ducks flying away.

In the car ride back home, Meadow notices a cut on Tony's hand and mud on his shoes. She asks him about it, citing their newfound honesty with each other. However she can tell that he is lying to her, and decides to stop asking questions.

Back home, Carmela tells Tony that Father Phil stayed the night. Though he is indignant at the though of her spending the night alone with another man, Carmela reveals that she knows about his female therapist, and Tony is left trying to explain.

From that summary alone, the episode might not seem like anything special. Plot wise the episode has almost nothing to do with the overarching story of the season, and features only a fraction of the cast.

But the stand alone nature of this episode is exactly why it's the favorite of creator David Chase.

It's easy to see why he preferred stand alone episodes. it allowed him to focus on the characters and their development, more than just the plot. There is a lot of great symbolism in this episode that I don't think they would have had time for if they were writing C and D plots into the story.

I love the development between Tony and Meadow. For once he has opened up to her and been honest, and she returns by showing more trust and acceptance of him. However when he goes back to lying to her, we can see that it has broken their relationship. They would never again be as close as they were throughout the rest of the series.

This is symbolized perfectly when Tony sees the school of ducks flying away after he kills Febby. In the pilot, Tony has a panic attack when the ducks leave his pool, symbolizing his fear of losing his family.

Because he chooses to pursue vengeance and the mob code over honesty with his daughter, he loses his relationship with her. This is also symbolized in the Hawthorne quote he sees at the last college, which foreshadows conflict between his Mob life and home life that Tony would deal with throughout the series.

This episode was also well received by critics. Edie Falco won her first Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama for her role in this episode, and David Chase and writer James Manos Jr both won an Emmy for Outstanding writing.

However there was some pushback against this episode. HBO was originally against Tony murdering the rat. They told David Chase that he has created one of the most compelling in television history, and was throwing it all away in one episode.

Eventually they allowed him to show the murder but forced him to add a scene that showed Febby was dealing drugs, which apparently meant it was ok to kill him.

To be fair, this was uncharted waters for a television show. It was one of the first major depictions of violence from a TV protagonist. There had been other shows that had the main character kill people, but not like this. This was brutal. They showed Tony strangling him to death with his bare hands right in front of the camera, and there was no justification such as self defense. The man was not a direct threat to Tony until he started pursuing him.

The decision to show such an act, and the fact that audiences accepted it, had a profound effect on television. It cemented the idea that the main character of a show could be morally complicated, even straight up evil in some cases, and still be compelling. This episode would usher in the so called Golden age of television we live in now, an era defined by the antihero protagonist.

Some of these shows can even be traced directly to the Sopranos. James Manos Jr who wrote this episode went on to create Dexter, a show about a literal serial killer. Series writers Matt Weiner and Terry Winter would go on to create Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire respectively, again both shows about morally complicated men. Without the Sopranos, these shows couldn't have existed.

Even shows that can't be traced directly to the Sopranos such as Breaking Bad still owe their existence to the zietgeist the show created for television.

I hope you found this video insightful and entertaining. Everyone knows just what an incredible show the Sopranos was, but as a fan it's amazing to see just how influential the series was on all of television, and I wanted to share it with all of you. If you liked the video let me know in the comments down below. It really helps the channel and be sure to subscribe for more Sopranos content coming soon!